Blues receive good news for injured star after Origin collision<\/a><\/p>\nCarlton star Jacob Weitering has received some good news, with the Blues labelling their injured vice-captain as a “good chance” to feature in opening round.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s unbelievably important, and I’m looking forward to the day when we don’t talk about traditional states and non-footy states,” Harley said.<\/p>\n
“The two games they (Sydney) have had to open the season have been enormous, which then leads into really strong membership and attendance, and that’s just the one club.<\/p>\n
“I see it as your classic win-win. It’s a week that wasn’t there. The reality is a lot of the grounds aren’t available at that time of year, and it does provide enormous momentum for, let’s call it, 58 per cent of the population that lives north of the Murray [River].<\/p>\n
“If we truly want to be Australia’s game, I think it’s a fantastic initiative.”<\/p>\n
The Saints-Magpies clash at the MCG falls on the same day as the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park.<\/p>\n
Harley denied having a fixture in Melbourne during Opening Round defeated the purpose by taking focus away from the northern markets.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think so at all,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Everyone whetted their appetite clearly on the weekend with the [State of Origin] game in Perth.<\/p>\n
“The game on Thursday night up in Sydney, followed by the Suns and Cats on the Friday night, they are big games with big clubs.<\/p>\n
“I’m sure everyone will be excited by them.”<\/p>\n
Harley said the league will continue to experiment with the fixture in coming seasons, with the planned introduction of the Tasmania Devils in 2028.<\/p>\n
“We’re keen to look at events, whether they be singular games or whole rounds like Gather Round, to help grow the game and bring new fans to the game,” he said.<\/p>\n
Harley also believes State of Origin has a “really exciting future” after the Western Australia-Victoria clash attracted a sell-out crowd at Optus Stadium and a healthy television audience.<\/p>\n
“There’s clearly an appetite. In terms of what it looks like [in future], let’s breathe out and assess,” he said.<\/p>\n
“What I think we can confidently say is there’s a place for it.”<\/p>\n
AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL chief operating officer Tom Harley insists the league’s polarising Opening Round is here to stay, declaring it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[5844,638,64,63,55,639,3237,9130,33064,588,85,7200,12410],"class_list":{"0":"post-485001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-abc-sport","9":"tag-afl","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australian-football-league","13":"tag-australianfootballleague","14":"tag-brisbane-lions","15":"tag-gold-coast-suns","16":"tag-opening-round","17":"tag-sport","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-sydney-swans","20":"tag-tom-harley"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}